The prince is very fierce

Compared to the music and music of Jinling City, the Hongshan Lake area 200 miles away is a completely different scene.

The cold wind blows the flags of the water fort by the lake. Several sentries holding weapons, wrapped tightly in animal skin coats, hold torches and patrol from a high place. The lights in the water fort are bright, and temporary houses are piled up in a mess. Groups of water bandits sit by the fire and eat meat and wine. In the wooden cages above the water, several young men in fancy clothes are locked up, their faces pale and dare not say a word. There are wooden stakes on the main road to the water fort, on which are hung the skins of several officers and soldiers, which have been dried for a long time.

The water fort is called Hongshan Water Fort by the local people. It is not a new one, but has existed for many years. It was originally a deserted fishing village. Ten years ago, Song Ji Tieying's hunting of deer forced countless people with dirty backgrounds to rebel and hide in the fishing village. It was similar to the shabby mountain stronghold that the swordsman Zhang Ding encountered. Similar fugitive gathering places were almost everywhere in Dayue. In order to avoid being tracked down by the government, most of them did not show up to cause trouble.

Hongshan Water Stronghold was relatively peaceful in the past few years. The owner Sun Qian himself was a martial arts expert and had some reputation in the world. He gathered a group of bandits and relied on the natural dangers of Hongshan Lake to do some kidnapping and robbery business. He would not kill the hostages for money, so he did not cause panic.

The reason why it evolved into such a large bandit stronghold with thousands of water bandits gathered was quite complicated.

Sixty years ago, after Emperor Xiaozong broke Chang'an, the royal family of Daqi fled to Mobei, and Nanyue was lingering in the mountains. It was only one step away from pacifying the world. General Xu Lie and Emperor Xiaozong naturally wanted to sweep across the eight wildernesses and six directions in one go.

But fighting was too damaging to the country's strength. After nearly ten years of chaos in the Three Kingdoms, the population dropped sharply and the land was barren. Almost all the men who were forced to fight died. Many generals and officials were successful and famous, and the soldiers were tired of fighting and could not fight anymore.

Seeing this, Emperor Xiaozong could only withdraw his troops to recuperate and enfeoff his six sons to various places as princes to start post-war reconstruction. Because the threat from the enemy was still there, he asked Xu Lie to lead his troops out of Qianyang Pass to recover the Western Regions and clamp down on the left wing of Northern Qi.

During this withdrawal of troops, Emperor Xiaozong was busy restoring people's livelihood until his death, and General Xu Lie was unable to fulfill his wish to lead the Northern Expedition. Northern Qi breathed a sigh of relief and gained a firm foothold in the desert of Mobei.

After the previous emperor ascended the throne, he was busy rectifying the internal affairs all his life. It took two generations to restore Dayue to its former prosperity. By the time they were able to fight the Northern Expedition, Xu Lie had already passed away, Dayue occupied the entire Central Plains, and Mobei was a barbarian land, so it was meaningless to fight it. Most of the generals and aristocratic families did not want to fight, and the late emperor naturally did not provoke a war.

But Dayue and Northern Qi never stopped fighting from the beginning to the end, and Northern Qi could not stay in the wilderness of Mobei forever. Sooner or later, it would march south to take back what its ancestors had thrown away.

The late emperor appointed the crown prince on his deathbed because he saw this.

Song Yu and Song Ji were both cultivated by the late emperor as heirs. Song Ji had both literary and military strategies, but he was too ambitious. As long as he succeeded to the throne, he would probably drag the whole world into the quagmire of war.

Song Yu was inferior to Song Ji in all aspects, but his moderation was also an advantage. As long as Song Yu inherited the throne, he would not take the initiative to take risks, such as mobilizing troops and reducing vassal states, and he would honestly be a king who maintained the status quo, which was enough to delay the peaceful and prosperous era for a few more decades.

The late emperor had guarded the family business for his whole life, and he certainly wanted to continue to guard it, but after two generations of hard work, the Northern Qi Dynasty was no longer the dog that lost its home; the lineage of the King of Su in the northwest had developed into a tumor, and even had the ability to enter Chang'an City in ten days. Let Song Yu take the throne. If Xu Buling grew up to be a hero, and let him develop for another generation, Guanzhong Road might have changed its surname to Xu.

For this reason, the late emperor gave the throne to Song Ji when he was dying. What Song Ji took over was a peaceful and prosperous era on the surface, but in fact it was a volcano that had accumulated pressure for decades and was about to erupt.

After Song Ji came to power, he began to find ways to suppress the military families that had expanded to a certain extent, promoted the imperial examination and reused the poor to reduce the influence of the family, established a huge intelligence network of the Investigation Department to bypass the existing bureaucratic system to get information, etc., in order to make his subordinates obedient when the Northern Qi Dynasty started the army.

However, after the failure of the attempt to reduce the power of Xu Buling, the situation had already begun to develop out of control, and the hidden dangers left over from decades were not limited to this.

Because the power of Northern Qi was rising steadily, Emperor Dayue could not reduce the army. Heavy troops were deployed all year round on the long fronts in the north and south. The military pay plus war horses, weapons, food and grass, etc., consumed astronomical figures, which led to a lot of heavy taxes on the people. Most of them were concentrated in the richest Jiangnan and the land of abundance, Shu. These two had no foreign enemies and did not need to maintain heavy troops.

Last year, there was a severe drought in Shu and the King of Shu asked for help. Song Ji asked the nearby King of Su to raise food from Qinzhou instead of transporting it from Guanzhong Road. This was because without Shu, other places were running at full capacity and it was difficult to squeeze out oil and water.

And this autumn, it rained for more than ten days in a row, and Muzhou and other places in Jiangnan suffered from floods. The people had no harvest and could not pay the annual tax at all.

Faced with the huge hole, the King of Wu did not even send the memorial to Chang'an requesting tax reduction and exemption, because Song Ji would not agree, and he had to find ways to raise money.

When there is a famine, instead of providing relief, heavy taxes are imposed. The effect is predictable.

The people who have already suffered from the famine had to flee to other places far away from home to avoid heavy taxes, resulting in a large number of refugees. Many of them took risks to burn, kill and rob, which scared more people to flee everywhere. This is also the source of refugees in Huainan and other places.

The Hongshan Water Village has gradually grown in size by hosting exiled bandits over the years. Especially this year, the number of people has increased several times. In order to feed so many people, there were more and more kidnappings and robberies, which made the area around Hongshan Lake so smoky that no one dared to stay. After officers and soldiers came to stir things up a few times but to no avail, it became what it is now.

————

Under the silver moon, in the mountains and fields opposite Hongshan Water Village.

Zhongli Chuchu, who came from Huainan, stood on a high place and looked at the huge water village in the distance. His green eyes showed some embarrassment and said softly:

"It's hard to deal with such a big village."

Zhongli Jiujiu built a bonfire on the stone, put the newly caught fish on the branches to bake, and said with a smile:

"This is a matter for Dayue's government. It has nothing to do with us. What do we care about what they do?"

Zhongli Chuchu jumped down from the height, sat on the ground beside his master, and said softly:

"I have nothing to do, I want to do something good. After doing this, I should be a famous chivalrous woman in the world, better than Ning Qingye after all. Master is also famous all over the world, and Ning Yuhe will probably be embarrassed to be with you. Presumptuous in front of me.”

"..."

I have to say that this reason is very sufficient. Zhonglijiujiu frowned and thought for a moment, then turned his head and looked at the water village in the distance:

"Okay, it's just a small water village, just wrap it up on me."

Zhongli Chuchu felt a little hesitant when he saw his master agreeing so simply:

"Master, there are estimated to be a thousand bandits. Do you really agree?"

Zhongli Jiujiu's eyes showed a bit of pride, and he patted his bulging chest:

"Aren't you still worried about taking action for your master?"

"Well……"

Zhongli Chuchu was really worried, and thought for a moment: "How about we stop discussing it? Don't end up involving both of us..."

"Don't worry, I am a wise teacher and have my own sense of proportion. Besides, Hongshan Water Village seems to have some discernment and never touches people from those big families. If I really miss it, I will say that I am Xu Buling's master, and you are Xu Buling’s mistress…”

"ah?!"

There was something strange in Zhongli's green eyes, and he waved his hand and said, "How can this be done..."

"Aren't you happy? It's okay to be a mistress who is a teacher but not allowed to do so..."

"No, Xu Buling is the prince of Suzhou, and he has no control over this place. It's useless to tell him...and if Xu Buling knows, he won't necessarily pay attention to us..."

Zhongli Chuchu said this, his face looked a little lonely, and he sighed softly.

Zhongli Jiujiu frowned, and after realizing this problem, he was also a little dissatisfied:

"I was so good to him that I even gave him the Chain Dragon Gu. Once I locked the Dragon Gu, there was no antidote. He should come over..."

"If he really came here for this, he would probably use Master to detoxify him first, so that he would not be able to find you if he was poisoned later..."

Faced with the poison of the same dragon-locking Gu, one becomes immune after detoxification. This obviously makes sense.

Zhongli Jiujiu became a little more serious and thought about it for a moment:

"That's right, then do you want to take action?"

"Master... it's up to you, I'm free to do whatever I want."

…